(Shel Silverstein)
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I wanna sing this song for a friend of ours
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His picture was in all the papers
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They said that a legend had passed
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The late evenin' news did a special report
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And swore that his mem'ry would last
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They're playin' his records all weekend
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Praisin' the life that he lived
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Nashville is rough on the livin'
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But she really speaks well of the dead.
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The wife that they interviewed cried
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Is the same one who left him last fall
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And the record producer who called him a hero
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Is the one who wouldn't answer his calls
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The ladies they sit over coffee
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Braggin' bout sharin' his bed
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They didn't want him around when he's livin'
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But he's sure a good friend when he's dead.
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They observed twenty seconds of silence
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At the Opry on Saturday night
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And they're searchin' the bars and the basements
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For some souvenir of his life.
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They're plannin' a book for September
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Showin' his plain country roots
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Any they're sellin' the rights to the movie
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And the Hall of Fame's gettin' his boots
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At the funeral somebody recited a poem
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That told how he suffered and bled
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Nashville is rough on the livin'
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But she really speaks well of the dead.
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Yeah, Nashville is rough on the livin'
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But she really speaks well of the dead...
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